The Minneapolis mayoral debate at Westminster Hall on Friday night Sept. 26 offered the sharpest exchanges of the campaign so far, with incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey facing his top four challengers: State Sen. Omar Fateh, Rev. DeWayne Davis, attorney Jazz Hampton and activist Brenda Short.
Downtown’s recovery dominated the early discussion. Nearly one in four office spaces remain vacant in early 2025, a steep rise from roughly one in seven before the pandemic. Frey touted efforts to “break up massive storefronts” and recruit small, locally owned businesses, saying the strategy is key to revitalizing the core.
Fateh dismissed the approach as too little, too late. “The downtown Mayor Frey inherited in 2017 is a dream compared to what we have now,” the state senator said. “He can blame Covid-19 or George Floyd, but this decline is on his watch.”
Fateh proposed a commercial vacancy tax and lobbying for a statewide land-value tax to generate revenue for city services. Hampton, meanwhile, called for faster permitting and inspections to speed up private development…